


Rent

by Lothiriel84



Series: Roomies [2]
Category: MarsCorp (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Dubious Morality, Explicit Language, Gen, M/M, Mentor/Protégé, Secret Relationship, The Author Regrets Everything, creepy old men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 08:43:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15239649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: But look at my hopes, look at my dreamsthe currency we've spentI love you, you pay my rent





	1. Chapter 1

The rustling of dry leaves took several moments to finally register with him, and he very nearly jumped out of his skin when a figure dressed head to toe in cotton candy pink materialised at his elbow.

“Angelica!” he squeaked, belatedly covering his mouth and praying the Shareholders that she wasn’t going to lash out at him for addressing her in such a familiar manner.

“Hello, Freak,” she greeted him, and it looked like she was in enough of a good mood to let it slide for the time being. “Why on Mars are you skulking in the sugarcane fields, rather than taking it to the dance floor with your Sugar Daddy? He’s been looking for you everywhere – it’s kind of pathetic, really.”

“I – don’t know who you mean, but he’s most definitely not – that.”

Angelica looked down at him in mild curiosity, tilting her head to the side. “Come on, you seriously want me to believe you moved in with _the_ Colin Denham, and he doesn’t even fuck you?”

“I – we – that’s not relevant,” he replied in a panicked outburst, hugging his knees closer to his chest and resuming that rocking motion he happened to find strangely calming for some reason. Let Angelica mock him, call him a useless weirdo and a freak; he was too distraught to even care.

“David,” she leaned over him for a moment, her tone uncharacteristically soft for a change. “I don’t care who you have sex with, so long as it’s not someone I’m currently seeing; but you can’t realistically expect people not to talk.”

“Why? Why can’t they just – mind their own business!”

She shrugged, clearly uninterested in finding a plausible reason for that. “Probably because they’re all a bunch of idiots. Look, I’m not saying you should stop sleeping with Colin – but the whole thing is starting to get the wind up your parents, so you’d better prepare yourself for the shitstorm to hit very soon.”

“Shareholders, what am I going to do?” he whined, still rocking to and fro. If only Colin hadn’t seen fit to thoroughly humiliate that wet blanket that was Simon Badcocke, then maybe they wouldn’t be dealing with all sorts of rumours the old hypocrite had been spreading across the entire Base in retaliation.

As irritating as Colin was when it came to talking his way out of all the basic, everyday tasks, David wasn’t sure he could face the prospect of being forced to give up on their mutual cohabitation; and he surely would have to, if his parents ever suspected he was tarnishing the Knights’ reputation by making a slut of himself with his ostensibly irreproachable mentor and superior. He might as well take a stroll across the Martian plains without an oxygen tank on him, and just be done with it all.

“I know!” Angelica exclaimed at length, bouncing ever so slightly on her toes. “You’re sixteen, right? That means you could just get married – with your parents’ permission, of course.”

“Yeah, as if they’re ever going to agree to _that_.”

“Well, they’ll have to, if that’s what it takes to preserve the family’s good name,” she added triumphantly, looking every bit as pleased of herself as she ever did. “That’s what my father would do, if I ever ran away with some handsome Head of Department ten years my senior. Hell, he’d make sure they either do that, or get thrown into a vat of UltraAde fizzy sludge – and trust me, that’s not a particularly nice way to die.”

Far from being reassured by Angelica’s plan, David’s spirits sank even further; even if his parents consented to this madness – and he wasn’t in the least confident that they would – there was simply no way Colin himself would agree in the first place.

Still, he let Angelica drag him away from the sugarcane fields, and back into the party hall. If he was going to have to face the combined force of his parents’ wrath and righteous indignation, he might as well do it whilst drunk off his face; that would at least partially take the sting out of it, he reasoned to himself as he snatched a cocktail from a passing waiter.  


	2. Chapter 2

“Go home, Simon, you’re drunk.”

“Don’t – don’t think you can get rid of me that easily,” the man rebutted a little too quickly, very nearly spilling what was left of his drink in the process. His cheeks were an embarrassing shade of pink, and his speech considerably slurred, but the idiot didn’t seem to either notice, or care.

“Oh, but I can. I don’t know if you remember, but out of the two of us, I’m not the pathetic forty-something without connections or any career prospects at all. One word with Kingsley, and you’re banned from the Mine for the rest of your miserable life.”

“I’m thirty-nine,” Simon made a point of correcting him, waving his finger at him in a manner Colin would have found insulting, if it hadn’t been utterly ridiculous. “And I’m still not the creepy fucker who makes a habit of preying on vulnerable young interns, even going as far as to hide one in your fucking bedroom.”

“Jealous, Simon?” he challenged him, all while shooting him a triumphant grin. He watched in sheer delight as the other man spluttered with indignation in a pitiful attempt to deny the accusation, his smile widening even further as two of Kingsley’s guards made their way towards them, kindly but firmly escorting the cause of such a commotion out of the premises.

“Moron,” he muttered to himself, just as he caught sight of Jonathan Kingsley beckoning him over from his monstrosity of a throne situated at the other end of the room. He finished his drink and calmly made his way through the crowd, keeping an eye out for David, who had been conspicuous by his absence ever since the party started.

“Jonathan. How can I help you?” he rattled out with practiced ease, just as he finally caught sight of a decidedly intoxicated David being bossed around by the lovely Angelica. That silly boy, he sighed to himself, turning his full attention to the imposing figure cut by Mr Kingsley.

“Colin, my boy, I hope you don’t mind me taking an interest in your personal matters, but it’s been brought to my attention that there are some – rumours, concerning your young assistant, David Knight. His parents and I are good friends, very good friends indeed, at it would pain me if they ever decided to resort to some rather – shall we say, drastic solution?”

“With all due respect, Mr Kingsley, I certainly hope the Knights have enough sense to know better than to trust the word of a frustrated old wanker like Simon Badcocke.”

Kingsley looked around in what was probably meant to be a conspiratorial manner, then leaned closer to dispense his own rather peculiar idea of a friendly pat on the back. “Hey, we’re all friends here. I know a nice piece of arse when I see it, it would be nothing short of a crime to let that beauty go to waste – all I’m saying is, you should work your way around to it in order not to upset the boy’s parents. They’re rather proud of their name, you know?”

Colin blinked, still struggling to recover his composure as well as the breath Kingsley had quite literally knocked out of his lungs. “What are you suggesting then?”

“Oh, it’s very simple – my daughter suggested it, as a matter of fact. As smart as the devil, that’s what she is, and her father’s pride too.”

He caught himself before he could raise his eyebrow to signal his reservations; Kingsley would not take kindly on anyone who doubted of his precious daughter’s worth, even less if they were daring enough to do it to his own face.

“Ah, such a lively, sharp mind – it’s been quite a loss for the Science Department when she decided to join Medical instead.”

“Takes after her old Dad,” Kingsley laughed, clearly pleased with himself. “Anyway, that’s her bit of advice, and I strongly recommend you follow it through. I can easily talk the Knights around, you can count it as a favour from an old friend.”

Colin prayed that his smile wasn’t getting visibly strained by now, as he gathered every last shred of patience he possessed so as not to offend the old tyrant. “That’s positively generous of you, Jonathan. And her advice is?”

“Marry the lad, of course. That way you can have him all to yourself, and no one will breathe another word about the whole business.”

Somehow, the idea of marriage had never even crossed Colin’s mind, and he found himself reeling with the implications of such a foreign concept. Shareholders, but if he had to stand there and listen to the likes of Jonathan Kingsley suggesting he willingly subjected himself to what sounded suspiciously like some sort of shotgun wedding out of one of those ridiculous old Earthling movies, he needed a fucking drink. Preferably more than one, actually.

And if there was a hell in some remote corner of the multiverse, he definitely hoped Simon Badcocke would rot in it for the rest of forever.


End file.
